Lost Colony of Roanoke

Exhibit CC

The Lost Colony of Roanoke: Its Fate and
Sitrvival3
[By Stephen B. Weeks.]

The disappearance of the settlers of 1587 has
been called the tragedy of American colonization. The greatest interest
was manifested in their fate by all the early explorers. Numerous
expeditions were sent in search of them. These brought back various
rumors, but nothing certain could be learned. Their history became
interwoven with legend and romance; but after a lapse of three hundred
years they emerge again from the darkness and dust of oblivion.

It is now believed that the colonists of 1587
removed to Croatan soon after the return of Governor White to England;
that they inter-married with the Croatan or Hatteras Indians; that their
wanderings westward can be definitely traced; and that their descendants
can be identified today.

It is to a discussion of the movements of the
colonists after the departure of White, and to the identification of
their descendants, that the remaining pages of this paper will be
directed.

There can be no doubt that the colonists removed
to Croatan. When White left them, "they were prepared to remove from
Roanoak, fifty miles into the main.'' He agreed with them that they
should carve in some conspicuous place the name of the section to which
they went and if they went in distress a sign of the cross was to be
carved above. The name Croatan was found, but there was no sign of
distress. The colonists must have gone on the invitation of Manteo and
his friends, and the fact that their chests and other heavy articles
were buried indicates that it was their intention to revisit the island
of Roanoke at some future time, and that it was then in the possession
of hostile savages. These articles consisted largely of arms and other
instruments of war. This indicates that they went into the land of
friends and that that their new home was not far distant, otherwise they
would have taken all their property with them rather than endure the
fatigue of a second long journey to Roanoke for it. The question arises
then. Where was Croatan? On the location of this place the future of the
colony depended. Croatan, or more properly Croatoan, is an Indian word,
and was applied by the Hatteras Indians to the place of their residence.
Here Manteo was born, and here his relatives were living when he first
met the English; the latter soon began to apply the name to the Indians
themselves. The island of Roanoke was not at that time regularly
inhabited, but was used as a hunting ground by the tribe to which Manteo
belonged, and also by their enemies who lived on the main and were the
subjects of Virginia.

The name Croatan first appears in the account of
Grenville's voyage of 1585. It is there made an island; Lane says that
it was an island; and White also bears witness to this, for he says,
when describing his discovery of the deserted and dismantled fort: "I
greatly joyed that I had found a certain token of their safe being at
Croatoan, which is the place where Manteo was born and the savages of
the island our friends." On White's map of the coast it is put down as
an island. From these facts it is perfectly clear that the adventurers
believed Croatan to be an island. The map of 1666 and the Nuremburg map
make it a part of the banks lying between Cape Hatteras and Cape
Lookout, perhaps what is now known as Core Banks, and consequently an
island; but later maps have located Croatan on the mainland, just
opposite Roanoke Island, in the present counties of Dare, Tyrrell, and
Hyde. It is marked thus on Ogilby's map, published by the Lords
Proprietors in 1671, on Morden's map of 1687, and on Lawson's map,
published in 1709. A part of this region is still known as Croatan,
while the sound between this section and Roanoke Island bears the name
of Croatan. On the Nuremburg map and on the map of 1666 this peninsula
is called Dasamonguepeuk. Now we know that in 1587 Manteo was baptized
as Lord of Roanoke and Dasamonguepeuk. This title clearly indicates that
the Hatteras tribe, to which Manteo belonged, laid claims to the
peninsula. They doubtless made use of it for the cultivation of corn, as
well as for hunting and fishing, while their principal seat was some
eighty miles to the south on the island of Croatan. The English
colonists have left us unimpeachable testimony that they removed from
Roanoke Island to Croatan. The Croatan of the early explorers and maps
was a long, narrow, storm-beaten sandbank, incapable in itself of
supporting savage life, much less the lives of men and women living in
the agricultural stage. It is not reasonable to suppose that the
colonists would have gone from a fertile soil to a sterile one. It is
probable, then, that in accordance with an understanding between each
other, the Hatteras Indians having abandoned their residence on Croatan
Island, and the English colonists having given up their settlements on
Roanoke Island, both settled on the fertile peninsula of Dasamonguepeuk,
which the Hatteras tribe had already claimed and partly occupied, but
which they had not been able to defend against enemies. The name of
their former place of residence followed the tribe, was applied to their
new home, and thus got into the later maps. If this theory is accepted,
it is easy to see how the Hatteras tribe may have come into
communication with kindred tribes on the Chowan and Roanoke rivers, to
which they seem to have gone at a later period. This is one end of the
chain of evidence in this history of survivals.

The other end of the chain is to be found in a
tribe of Indians now living in Robeson County and the adjacent sections
of North Carolina, and recognized officially by the State in 1885 as
Croatan Indians, These Indians are believed to be the lineal descendants
of the colonists left by John White on Roanoke Island in 1587. The
migrations of the Croatan tribe from former homes farther to the east
can be traced by their tradition. It is pretty clear that the tribe
removed to their present home from former settlements on Black River, in
Sampson County. The time of their removal is uncertain; but all
traditions point to a time anterior to the Tuscarora war in 1711, and it
is probable that they were fixed in their present homes as early as
1650.4 During the eighteenth century they
occupied the country as far west as the Pee Dee, but their principal
seats were on Lumber River, in Robeson County, and extended along it for
twenty miles. They held their lands in common, and titles became known
only on the approach of white men. The first known grant made to any
member of this tribe is located on the Lowrie Swamp east of Lumber
River, and was made by George II in 1732 to Henry Berry and James
Lowrie.5 Another grant was made to James
Lowrie in 1738. Traditions point to still older deeds that are not known
to now exist. The tribe has never ceased to be migratory in its
disposition. For many years after the main body had settled in Robeson,
scattered detachments would join them from their old homes farther to
the east, while parts would remove farther toward the west. They are now
to be found all over western North Carolina, and many families there who
have retained their purity of blood to such a degree that they cannot be
distinguished from white people are claimed by the tribe in Robeson.
After the coming of the white people a part of the tribe removed to the
region of the Great Lakes, and their descendants are still living in
Canada, west of Lake Ontario. At a later period another company went to
the Northwest and became incorporated with a tribe near Lake Michigan.
Some time before the war a party drifted to Ohio; one of them, Lewis
Sheridan Leary, was in John Brown's party when he invaded Harper's Ferry
in 1859, and was killed there October 17, 1859, while guarding John
Brown's "fort."6 In 1890 a party removed to
Kansas.

The Croatan fought under Colonel Barnwell against
the Tuscarora in 1711, and the tribe of to-day speak with pride of the
stand taken by their ancestors under "Bunnul" for the cause of the
whites.7 In this war they took some of the
Mattamuskeet Indians prisoners and made them slaves. Many of the Croatan
were in the Continental Army; in the War of 1812 a company was mustered
into the Army of the United States, and members of the tribe received
pensions for these services within the memory of the present generation;
they also fought in the armies of the Confederate States. Politically
they have had little chance for development. From 1783 to 1835 they had
the right to vote, performed military duties, encouraged schools, and
built churches; but by the constituent convention of 1835 the franchise
was denied to all "free persons of color," and to effect a political
purpose it was contended by both parties that the Croatan came under
this category. The convention of 1868 removed this ban; but as they had
long been classed as mulattoes they were obliged to patronize the Negro
schools. This they refused to do as a rule, preferring that their
children should grow up in ignorance, for they hold the Negro in utmost
contempt8 and no greater insult can be given
a Croatan than to call him ''a nigger."

Finally, in 1885, through the efforts of Mr.
Hamilton McMillan, who has lived near them and knows their history,
justice long delayed was granted them by the General Assembly of North
Carolina. They were officially recognized as Croatan Indians;9
separate schools were provided for them and intermarriage with Negroes
was forbidden. Since this action on the part of the State they have
become better citizens.10

They are almost universally landowners, occupying
about sixty thousand acres in Robeson County. They are industrious and
frugal, and anxious to improve their condition. No two families occupy
the same house, but each has its own establishment.

They are found of all colors from black to white,
and in some cases cannot be distinguished from white people. They have
the prominent cheek bones, the steel-gray eyes, the straight black hair
of the Indian.11 Those showing the Indian
features most prominently have no beards; those in whom the white
element predominates have beards. Their women are frequently bealltiful;
their movements are graceful, their dresses becoming, their figures
superb.

In religious inclinations they are Methodists and
Baptists, and own sixteen churches. The State has provided them a normal
school for the training of teachers, and this action will go very far
toward their mental and moral elevation. Their schoolhouses have been
built entirely by private means; they are all frame buildings, and are
furnished far better than those for the Negro race. Their school
enrollment in Robeson County is 422, according to the report of the
eleventh census, and they employ eighteen teachers. Their entire school
population, from six to twenty-one years, will probably amount to eleven
hundred. Their whole population in this county is about twenty-five
hundred, and their connections in other counties will perhaps swell this
number to five thousand. They are quick-witted, and are capable of
development. Mr. John S. Leary, a prominent politician of Raleigh, and
professor of law in Shaw University, was a member of the tribe, and one
of their number has reached the Senate of the United States, for Hon.
Hiram R. Revels, who was born in

Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1822, and who
was senator from Mississippi in 1870-71, is not a Negro, but a Croatan
Indian.12

This is the other end of the chain. To connect
the two parts and show that the Croatan Indians of today are the
descendants of the Hatteras Indians of 1587 and of the English colony
left on Roanoke Island by John White in that year, we must examine,
first, the evidence of historians and explorers on the subject; and,
second, the traditions, character, and disposition, language, and family
names of the Croatan Indians themselves.

We hear no more of the colonists left on Roanoke
Island from the departure of White in 1591 until the settlement at
Jamestown. We then have four sources of information in regard to them.
The first of these is John Smith's "True Relation," first published in
1608. The second is a rude map of the coast of Virginia and North
Carolina, which had probably been sent to England by Capt. Francis
Nelson in June, 1608. It was intended to illustrate Smith's "True
Relation," was not drawn from surveys, nor is it based on any accurate
knowledge of the coast, nor had the maker seen the map of the coast made
by John White. It was drawn presumably to illustrate a story told by the
Indians, and based on the information derived from them. It was sent in
September, 1608, by Zuniga, the Spanish minister in London, to his
master, Philip III, and is now first published in Mr. Alexander Brown's
"Genesis of the United States." The third source is a pamphlet called "A
True and Sincere Discourse of the Purpose and Ende of the Plantation
begun in Virginia," published in 1610. The fourth is Strachey's "History
of Travaile into Virginia Britannia," published by the Hakluyt Society
in 1849. Strachey came to Virginia as early as 1610, and became
secretary of the council. His history is put by Mr. R. H. Major, his
editor, between 1612 and 1616.

Captain Smith says in his "True Relation" that
Opechancanough, one of the Indian kings, informed him "of certaine men
cloathed at a place called Ocanahonan, cloathed like me." "The people
cloathed at Ocamahowan, he also confirmed." Again: "We had agreed with
the king of Paspahegh to conduct two of our men to a place called
Panawicke, beyond Roonok, where he reported many men to be apparelled.13

The map illustrating this "Relation" shows three
rivers which are probably intended to represent the Roanoke, the Tar,
and the Neuse. On the south side of the Roanoke is a place called
Ocanahowan. On the upper waters of the Neuse is Pakrakanick, and near it
the legend "Here remayneth 4 men clothed that came from Roonock to
Ochanahowan." The peninsula known to the explorers of 1585 as
Dasamonguepeuk is called Pananiock, and the legend placed there says:
"Here the king of Paspahege reported our men to be & wants to go."At a
point on the James the map says: "Here Paspehege and 2 of our men la, to
go to Panaweock." This expedition set out in January or February, 1608,
and failed because the Indian king played the villain.

The managers of the Virginia Company in their
"True and Sincere Declaration," referring to the Roanoke colony, say:
"if with these [evils] we compare the advantages which we have gotten
... in the intelligence of some of our nation planted by Sir Walter
Raleigh, yet a live, within fifty mile of our fort, who can open the
womb and bowels of this country; as is testified by two of our colony
sent out to seek them, who (though denied by the savages speech with
them) found crosses and Letters the Characters and assured Testimonies
of Christians newly cut in the barks of trees."14

Strachey says : At Peccarecamek and Ochanahoen .
. . the people have houses built with stone walls, and one story above
another, so tallght them by those English who escaped the slallghter at
Roanoak, at what time this our colony, under the conduct of Captain
Newport, landed within the Chesapeake Bay." Powhatan had been instigated
to this massacre by his priests. Seven persons escaped four men, two
boys, and a young maid. These fled up the Chowan River and were
preserved at Ritanoe by a chief named Eyanoco, and, in return for
protection, began to teach the savages the arts of civilized life.15

We are to remember always that the reports of
Indians are vague and indefinite. This is to be expected of an
uneducated people, but while varying in detail the substance may be
depended on as essentially true. The vagueness in these cases is further
increased by the fact that the English knew little from actual
exploration of the regions involved. We are safe then in identifying:

(1) Smith's Panawicke with the Pananiock and the
Pananeock of the map. This is the name given to the territory known to
the earlier explorers as Dasamonguepeuk.

(2) The Ochanahonan and Ocamahowan of Smith and
the Ocanahowan of the map are identical with Strachey's Ochanahoen.

(3) The Pakrakanick of the map is identical with
Strachey's Peccarecamek.

Taking these sources of information together and
identifying the localities as we have done, it seems reasonable to
conclude:

(1) That about 1607 the colonists left on Roanoke
Island in 1587, now inter-mixed with the Croatan Indians, were on the
peninsula of Dasamonguepeuk and that fresh traces of them were seen
about this time by explorers sent out from Jamestown.

(2) That they heard of the arrival of Captain
Newport in Chesapeake Bay, and that some of them made an effort to reach
the colony at Jamestown. It is not necessary to suppose that there was a
general migration of the whole Croatan tribe toward the Chowan. We may
conclude that most of the original colonists who were then alive and
some of the half-breeds undertook the journey. They were met with
hostility by the emissaries of Powhatan and some were slain.16

(3) That others were protected and saved by a
chief named Eyanoco, who was probably connected in some way with the
Croatan tribe, for we must remember that when Lane was exploring these
regions in 1586 he found Indians whose language Manteo could understand
without an interpreter.

(4) That according to the map they traveled from
the region of the Chowan and Roanoke Rivers to the country known on it
as Packrakanick and to Strachey as Peccarecamek. This was probably on
the upper waters of the Neuse, in what may now be Wayne and Lenoir
Counties. It is probable that they were rejoined by those who had not
undertaken the expedition toward Virginia, and from this point they
could have passed easily into Sampson and Robeson Counties in conformity
with their traditions, as related by Mr. McMillan.

Smith's "Relation," the map, and Strachey all
tend to strengthen and explain the testimony of the next historical
reference we have to the tribe. This is by John Lederer, a German, who
made some explorations in eastern North Carolina, perhaps in the region
south of the Roanoke River, in 1669-70. He mentions a powerful nation of
bearded men two and one-half days' journey to the southwest, ''which I
suppose to be the Spaniards, because the Indians never have any"
[beards].17 Dr. Hawks thinks that these
"bearded men" may have been the settlers on the Cape Fear, but we know
that this colony was disbanded in 1667. We have no records of any
Spanish settlements as far north as this; and according to Mr. McMillan
(p. 20), the mongrel tribe now known as Croatan Indians were occupying
their present homes as early as 1650. The statement of Lederer can only
refer to the Croatan tribe.

The next account we have of them is in 1704, when
Rev. John Blair, then traveling as a missionary through the Albemarle
settlements, tells of a powerful tribe of Indians living to the south of
what is now Albemarle Sound, "computed to be no less than 100,000, many
of which live amongst the English, and all, as I can understand, a very
civilized people."This account is very vague and indefinite, and the
numbers are largely overestimated; but it can refer to no other tribe
than the Croatan. They were then living southwest of Pamlico Sound and
they alone had had civilized influences to bear upon them.

The next reference to the tribe is more definite.
John Lawson, the first historian of North Carolina, explored all the
region southwest of Pamlico Sound. He was thoroughly acquainted with the
Indians in those sections. In writing of the Roanoke settlements he
says: "A farther confirmation of this [the settlements of Raleigh] we
have from the Hatteras (Croatan) Indians, who lived on Ronoack Island,
or much frequented it. These tell us that several of their ancestors
were white people and could talk in a book as we do; the truth of which
is confirmed by gray eyes being frequently found amongst these Indians
and no others. They value themselves extremely for their affinity to the
English, and are ready to do them all friendly offices. It is probable
that this settlement miscarried for want of timely supplies from
England; or through the treachery of the natives, for we may reasonably
suppose that the English were forced to cohabit with them for relief and
conservation; and that in process of time they conformed themselves to
the manners of their Indian relations; and thus we see how apt human
nature is to degenerate.18 Lawson wrote
these words not later than 1709, as his book was first published in that
year. It is impossible for the story told by him to be a tradition not
founded on the truth, for he wrote within one hundred and twenty years
of the original settlements at Roanoke, and he may have talked with men
whose grandfathers had been among the original colonists.

The next witnesses in this chain of evidence are
the early settlers in the Cape Fear section of North Carolina. Scotch
settlements were made in Fayetteville as early as 1715.19
In 1730 Scotchmen began to arrive in what is now Richmond County, and
French Huguenots were at the same time pressing up from South Carolina.
The universal tradition among the descendants of these settlers is that
their ancestors found a large tribe of Indians located on Lumber River,
in Robeson County, who were tilling the soil, owning slaves, and
speaking English. The descendants of this tribe are known to be the
Croatan Indians of today.

We see, then, that the historical arguments which
tend to identify the Croatan of today as the descendants of the
colonists of 1587 possess an historical continuity from 1591 to the
present time. There is also a threefold internal argument based

(1) on the traditions of the Croatan Indians of
today;

(2) from their character and disposition;

(3) from their forms of language and family
names.

I. Traditions.
— The Croatan Indians believe themselves to be the descendants of the
colonists of 1587, and boast of their mixed English and Indian blood.
They always refer to eastern North Carolina as Virginia, and say their
former home was in Roanoke, in Virginia, which means the present
counties of Dare, Tyrrell, Hyde, Craven, Carteret, and Jones, and of
this residence their traditions are sufficiently clear. They say that
they held communication with the east long after their removal toward
the west, and one of these parties may have met Lawson about 1709. They
know that one of their leaders was made Lord of Roanoke and went to
England, but his name has been lost, the nearest approach to it being in
the forms Maino and Mainor. They have a word "mayno," which means a very
quiet, law-abiding people; and this, by a kind of metonymy, may be a
survival of Manteo. When an old chronicler was told the story of
Virginia Dare he recognized it, but her name is preserved only as Darr,
Durr, Dorr. They say that, according to their traditions, Mattamuskeet
Lake, in Hyde County, is a burnt lake, and so it is; but they have no
traditions in regard to Roanoke River. They say, also, that some of the
earlier settlers intermarried with them, and this may explain the
presence of such names among them as Chavis (Cheves), Goins (O'Guin),
Leary (O'Leary).

II. Character and
disposition. — These Indians are hospitable to strangers and are
ever ready to do a favor for the white people. They show a fondness for
gay colors, march in Indian file, live retired from highways, never
forget a kindness, an injury, nor a debt. They are the best of friends
and the most dangerous of enemies. They are reticent until their
confidence is gained, and when aroused are perfect devils, exhibiting
all the hatred, malice, cunning, and endurance of their Indian
ancestors.20 At the same time they are
remarkably clean in their habits, a characteristic not found in the
pure-blooded Indian. Physicians who practice among them say they never
hesitate to sleep or eat in the house of a Croatan. They are also great
road builders, something unknown to the savage. They have some of the
best roads in the State, and by this means connect their more distant
settlements with those on Lumber River. One of these, the Lowrie road,
has been open for more than a hundred years, and is still in use. It
extends southwest from Fayetteville, through Cumberland and Robeson
counties, to a settlement on the Pee Dee. It was over this road that a
special courier bore to General Jackson in 1815 the news of the treaty
of Ghent.

III. Language and
Family Names. The speech of the Croatan is very pure English; no
classical terms are used. It differs from that of the whites and from
that of the blacks among whom they live. They have preserved many forms
in good use three hundred years ago, but which are now obsolete in the
written language and are found only in colloquial and dialectical
English. They drawl the penult or final syllable in every sentence. They
begin their salutations with "mon-n-n," which means man. This seems to
be frequently used much in the sense of the German mann sagt, or the
French on dit, their traditions usually beginning: ''Mon, my fayther
told me that his fayther told him," etc. They retain the parasitic
(glide) y, which was an extremely common development in Anglo-Saxon, in
certain words through the palatal influence of the previous consonant,
pronouncing cow as cy-ow, cart as cy-art, card as
cy-ard, girl as gy-irl, kind as ky-ind. The
voiceless form wing is retained instead of the voiced wing. They have
but two sounds for a, the short a being changed into o before nasals and
representing Anglo-Saxon open o in mon. They use the northern lovand in
place of the later hybrid loving. The Irish fayther is found for father.
The dialectical

Jeams is found in place of James. They regularly
use mon for man; mension for measurement; aks for ask; hit for it; hosen
for hose; housen for houses; crone is to push down and wit means
knowledge.21

The strongest evidence of all is furnished us by
the family names of the Croatan Indians of today. John White, in his
account of the settlement of 1587, has left us "the names of all the
men, women, and children which safely arrived in Virginia and remained
to inhabit there." These settlers were one hundred and seventeen in
number, and had ninety-five different surnames; out of these surnames
forty-one, or more than forty-three per cent, including such names as
Dare, Cooper, Stevens, Sampson, Harvie, Howe, Cage, Willes, Gramme,
Viccars, Berry, Chapman, Lasie, and Chevin, which are now rarely met
with in North Carolina, are reproduced by a tribe living hundreds of
miles from Roanoke Island, and after a lapse of three hundred years.22
The chroniclers of the tribe say that the Dares, the Coopers, the
Harvies, and others retained their purity of blood and were generally
the pioneers in emigration. And still more remarkable evidence is
furnished us by the fact that the traditions of every family bearing the
name of one of the lost colonists point to Roanoke Island as the home of
their ancestors.

To summarize:
Smith and Strachey heard that the colonists of 1587 were still alive
about 1607. They were then living on the peninsula of Dasamonguepeuk,
whence they traveled toward the region of the Chowan and Roanoke Rivers.
From this point they traveled toward the southwest and settled on the
upper waters of the Neuse. John Lederer heard of them in this direction
in 1670, and remarked on their beards, which were never worn by
full-blooded Indians. Rev. John Blair heard of them in 1704. John Lawson
met some of the Croatan Indians about 1709 and was told that their
ancestors were white men. White settlers came into the middle section of
North Carolina as early as 1715 and found the ancestors of the present
tribe of Croatan Indians tilling the soil, holding slaves, and speaking
English. The Croatan of today claim descent from the lost colony. Their
habits, disposition, and mental characteristics show traces both of
Indian and European ancestry. Their language is the English of three
hundred years ago, and their names are in many cases the same as those
borne by the original colonists. No other theory of their origin has
been advanced, and it is confidently believed that the one here proposed
is logically and historically the best, sup-ported as it is both by
external and internal evidence. If this theory is rejected, then the
critic must explain in some other way the origin of a people which,
after the lapse of three hundred years, show the characteristics, speak
the language, and possess the family names of the second English colony
planted in the western world.

______ The Malungeon tree and its four branches.
Arena, May, 1891, iii, 745-751. Historical and genealogical.

McMillan, Hamilton. — Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost
Colony. An historical sketch of the attempts of Sir Walter Raleigh to
establish a colony in Virginia with the traditions of an Indian tribe in
North Carolina indicating the fate of the colony of Englishmen left on
Roanoke Island in 1587. Wilson, N. C, 1888. D. pp. 29.

3. Reprinted from
Papers American Historical Association, 1891, V, pp. 460-477. The late
Dr. William T. Harris, when United States Commissioner of Education,
took much interest in this theory of survival. He once expressed in the
presence of this writer the belief that it was the greatest historical
discovery of the nineteenth century. — S. B. W. 4. McMillan:
Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony, p. 20. 5. Ibid., p.
14. The deeds for these grants are still extant and are in the
possession of Hon. D. P. McEachin, of Robeson County, North Carolina.
6. The late
Mr. John S. Leary wrote the allthor from Fayetteville, N. C, under date
of July 22, 1891: "I do not know as to whether any considerable number
of the 'Croatan' emigrated from the State at any time in a body. Quite a
number who were connected with the Croatan in Robeson County left the
State at different times. Senator Hiram R. Revels, his brothers, Willis
B. & Absalom, and two sisters, some of the Oxendines, Learys, and Dials;
I do not know the exact number. My father's mother was a Revels, born in
Robeson County, was 2d cousin to Hiram. She married an Irishman named
O'Leary. Father was born in Sampson County, on the Big Coharie, his
parents having moved to that county. In 1806 they came to Fayetteville,
where father lived until he died, in 1880. Father came from the 'Croatan
stock.' My mother was born in France, and was brought to this country by
her parents in 1812. Father & mother were married in 1825. In 1857 my
father sent my brother, Lewis Sheridan Leary, to Oberlin, Ohio. While
there he formed an acquaintance with John Brown and went with him to
Harper's Ferry in October, 1859. He was killed on the 17th day of
October, 1859, while guarding what is now known as 'John Brown's Fort.'
I saw this fort for the first time in 1880. It is a small brick house. I
have a grand uncle, my father's mother's brother, living now in the
Croatan settlement in Robeson County, 108 years old. As soon as I can
make it convenient to see him I will have a talk with him and put on
paper whatever information I can get from him and give you the benefit
of it." 7. The traditions of the tribe that they
fought in the Tuscarora war are verified by the Colonial Records of
North Carolina. In vol. ii., p. 129, we find an entry: "Whereas, report
has been made to this board that the Hatteress Indyans have lately made
their escape from the enemy Indyans," i. e., Tuscarora. Again, on p.
171, we find: "Upon petition of the Hatterass Indyans praying some small
relief from the country for their services," etc. 8. McMillan,
Sir Walter Raleigh's Lost Colony, 14-16. 9. It has been
suggested that the name "Croatan" was invented to strengthen the theory
of their origin as here presented, but this is not the case. As 'we have
seen, Croatan was the name of a locality and not of a tribe. The tribal
name was Hattoras or Hatorask, or, as we now spell it, Hatteras. Lawson
calls the Indians by this name. Dr. Hawks remarks on the error of the
explorers in calling them Croatan: and when the act of the North
Carolina Assembly recognizing them as Croatan was read to them, an
intelligent Indian remarked that he had always heard that they were
called "Hattoras" Indians. — McMillan, p. 20. 10. It is
said by Mr. McMillan, that after the North Carolina act of 18S7 went
into effect the Croatan came near filling Lumberton jail with violators
of law, the prosecutors in nearly all cases being Croatan. 11.A recent traveler among the Croatan
writes of one of them: "Where in my life had I seen a handsomer man? The
face was pure Greek in profile; the eyes steel blue, the figure of
perfect mould and the man as easily graceful in his attitude as any
gentleman in a drawing-room. I sat in my buggy talking with this man for
an hour, finding him far above ordinary intelligence and full of
information." That night the traveler learned that the handsome Croatan
was a brother of the famous Henry Berry Lowrie. 12. At one time the Croatan were known
as "Redbones," and there is a street in Fayetteville so called because
some of them once lived on it. They are known by this name in Sumpter
County, S. C, where they are quiet and peaceable, and have a church of
their own. They are proud and high-spirited, and caste is very strong
among them. There is in Hancock County, Tennessee, a tribe
of people known by the local name of Malungeon or Melungeon. Some say
they are a branch of the Croatan tribe, others that they are of
Portuguese stock. They differ radically, however, in manners and customs
from the accounts which we have received of the Croatan (of 2 articles
in The Arena for 1891, by Miss Will Allen Dromgoole). Mr. McMillan
favors the view that they are a part of the colony of Roanoke, and on
this question Mr. John M. Bishop, a native of East Tennessee, now living
in Washington, writes to the allthor: "My theory is that they are a part
of the lost colony of Roanoke. Your utterances at the recent meeting in
this city on the subject of the Lost Colony of Roanoke [meeting of Amer.
Hist. Assn., Dec. 31, 1890] were so nearly in line with my ideas in this
matter that I now write to call your attention to the subject. . . . You
will mark the fact that the Malungeon are located on Newman's Ridge and
Black Water Creek in Hancock County, Tenn., directly in the path of
ancient westward emigration. Dan Boon tramped all over this immediate
section. . . . The Malungeon, drifting with the tide of early
emigration, stranded on the borderland of the wilderness and remained
there." 13. Smith's
Works, Arber's edition, 1884, pp. 17-23. See map on p. 83. 14. Brown, Genesis of the United
States, i., 348. 15. Strachey,
pp. 50, IS5. The expression used by Strachey with reference to the
colony on page 152, where he says it will be related "in due place in
this decade," indicates that he had some additional information in
regard to their fate, but it was not given. 16. Purchas
says Powhatan confessed to Smith that he had been present at the
slallghter of the English. But this account did not seem satisfactory to
Smith, for he says in his condensation of White's narrative for his
General History of Virginia: "And thus we left seeking our colony that
was never any of them found or seen to this day, 1622." This shows that
Strachey's account was not known in 1609, when Smith had given up the
search and returned to England. — Arber's edition, 1884, p. 331. 17. Colonial Records of North Carolina,
i, 603. 18. Lawson, History of North Carolina
(ed. 1860), pp. 108, 109. 19. A house pulled down on Person
Street, in Fayetteville, in 1889, fixes this date. This places the first
settlements in this section at an earlier date than has been assigned
them hitherto. (H. McMillan, in a letter to the writer.)
75321°— S. Doc. 677, 63-3 5 20. A fearful illustration of this
spirit was shown in the career of Henry Berry Lowrie, "the great North
Carolina bandit." In February, 1864, the Home Guard of Robeson County
found Allen and William Lowrie, the father and brother of Henry Berry,
guilty of receiving stolen goods, tried them by court-martial and
executed them under military law. The execution awakened the desire for
revenge in the remaining brothers, and under the leadership of Henry
Berry Lowrie they defied for ten years the authority of the county, the
State, the Confederacy, and the United States. They killed the best men
in the section, some for plunder, some for revenge, and some in
self-defense. Henry Berry Lowrie was twenty-six at the time of his
death, and in physique was a perfect Apollo. His countenance expressed
the highest degree of firmness courage, and decision of character. His
forehead was high, broad, and massive; his eyes were a grayish hazel,
his hair was straight and black, his chest was deep and broad; he was
five feet ten inches high weighed one hundred and fifty pounds, and was
as elastic as rubber. He was always completely armed; in a belt he
carried five long-range, six-barreled revolvers; a Henry rifle carrying
sixteen cartridges was suspended at his back; a long knife and a
double-barreled shotgun were found in his hands. His armament weighed
not less than eighty pounds, but with it he could run, swim, bear weeks
of exposure in the swamps, and travel by day and by night to an extent
which would have killed a white man or Negro. He slept on his arms,
never seemed tired, and was never taken by surprise. During his long
career of outlawry he was never untrue to a promise, never committed
arson, nor insulted a white woman. A reward of ten thousand dollars was
placed on his head; he was hunted by night and by day, but eluded all
his pursuers, and perished on Feb. 20, 1872, from the accidental
discharge of his gun. After the death of the chief the band lost much of
the terror of its name, and two years later the last outlaw was slain.
(Cf. The Lowrie History, as Acted in Part by Henry Berry Lowrie, the
Great North Carolina Bandit, with Biographical Sketches of his
Associates, by Mrs. Mary C. Norment, Wilmington, 1875. This book was
written by Joseph B. McCallum; the chapter on the genealogy of the tribe
is "notoriously unreliable"; it makes them all descendants of James
Lowrie, who came to Robeson County from Virginia in 1769.) 21. The student of language will be
interested in a paper on Early English Survivals on Hatteras Island,
published by Prof. Collier Cobb, in which he points out the persistence
of obsolete forms of speech still found among the "bankers " of the
North Carolina coast and suggests that these people may themselves be
connected with the Lost Colony. 22. Dr.
Hawks reprints (History of North Carolina, i., 211, from Hakluyt) this
list of names. Mr. McMillan has compared it with the names of the
Croatan, and, according to his authority, those written below in italics
are now found among the Croatan. See p. 54.